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Notes
| Northern Territory self-government: The Northern Territory did not gain full representative self-government until 1978, although this had been planned since 1973. 'In 1973 the Whitlam [federal] Labor government established a joint committee of the federal parliament to plan for a setting up of a legislative assembly in 1974. But, in a style which Territorians would claim has been a consistent pattern, the Commonwealth Committee reported after the new assembly had been designed, confirmed and elected. The Legislative Assembly of nineteen members had all of the structures and processes of a representative parliament, but its powers remained the same as those of the previous Legislative Council. In 1978, however, after protracted negotiations with the Fraser Liberal government, the territory was granted self-government' Definitions of variables : uncontested seats: the number of seats in which only one candidate ran for office, and won the seat without any votes having to be cast. The database shows the number of voters enrolled in uncontested seats. Although there have been very few uncontested seats at general elections in Australia since 1980, they were a regular feature of elections in some states until the 1960s. The frequency of uncontested seats and the number of enrolled voters they contain can be a useful indicator of the competitiveness of the party system at a general election. For more information and analysis, see Campbell Sharman, 'Uncontested Seats and the Evolution of Party Competition: The Australian Case', Party Politics, 9(6) November 2003: 679-702. ballots Ballots are the papers on which votes are recorded. A vote can be a single mark, or one or more marks or numbers to elect one or more candidates. At some elections, voters could mark ballots with more than one vote, giving the result that there were more votes cast than voters. This was the case for elections for the South Australian House of Assembly until 1927. turnout - The turnout at at election is the proportion of voters on the electoral roll (registered voters) who cast a vote. In this database, turnout is measured as the rate of voting in contested seats, shown as a percentage of registered voters; see also compulsory voting. electoral district - Electoral districts are also called electorates but, as the term electorate also refers to the whole body of voters across a political system, the term electoral district has been used in this database to keep the distinction clear; electoral roll - The electoral roll is the list of voters who are registered to vote at an election. compulsory preferences - a requirement that a voter must rank all candidates on the ballot paper under a system of preferential voting. contingent voting - This can be thought of as a form of preferential voting (AV) with compulsory or optional preferences which permits the voter to vote for one or two candidates, but no more than two, by indicating a first choice candidate and, if the voter wishes, a second choice candidate. If a candidate gains more than 50 percent of the first preference votes cast in an electoral district, he or she is declared elected. If there is no such candidate, the second preferences shown on the ballot papers of all but the two candidates with the most first preference votes are divided between the top two candidates. After this assignment, the candidate with the most votes is declared the winner. This system has been used in general elections for the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1893 until 1941 (in single and multimember districts until 1909), and for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1928. It was also used for the first direct election of the Mayor of London in 2000 where it was called supplementary voting. For a discussion of contingent voting, see David M Farrell and Ian McAllister, The Australian Electoral System: Origins, Variations and Consequences, pp 25, 52-54 (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2006, ISBN 0868408581). Electoral system - The electoral system is the set of rules which specifies how elections are organized and how votes are cast and counted at an election. The broad category of electoral system used to elect members at an election is shown in the database, and the entries are indexed in this database under the name of each electoral system. Australia has been adventurous in its experimentation with electoral rules and electoral law. It is planned to add more information on Australian electoral rules to the database. Federation - The federation of the Commonwealth of Australia came into existence on 1 January 1901. The six colonies which had formed the federation continued after 1901 and became states in the new federal union. Federation entailed the creation of a national governmental structure which included a bicameral national parliament (see assembly) with a lower house called the House of Representatives and an upper house called the Senate. first past the post - A first past the post electoral system is one in which a voter is required to mark the ballot paper, usually with a cross or tick, indicating the voter's preferred candidate. The winning candidate is the one with the most votes. In electoral contests where there are only two candidates, the candidate with the most votes will have a majority (that is, more than 50 percent of the votes cast). If there are more than two candidates, the candidate with the most votes may only have a plurality (that is, more than any other candidate, but less that 50 percent of the votes cast). For this reason, first past the post voting is sometimes called plurality voting and is indicated in this database as 'first past the post (plurality) voting'. First past the post electoral systems were widely used in Australia until the rise of the Australian Labor Party prompted anti-Labor parties after 1910 to adopt preferential voting for most lower house elections in Australia. First past the post electoral systems are usually associated with single member districts, but they can also be used in multimember districts. The use of plurality voting with multimember districts is often called 'block voting'; the voter is given as many votes as there are candidates to be elected from the district. Such a system favours well organized party tickets and a successful party can win all the seats in a multimember district with a plurality of votes. This system was used for the Commonwealth Senate until 1919. Plurality voting can also be used in multimember districts by giving the voters as many ballots as there are candidates to be elected from the district. This enables voters to vote for several candidates or to cast more than one ballot for their favoured candidate (see also ballots). first preference vote - Preferential voting requires a voter to rank candidates on the ballot paper in the order of the voter's choice. A voter's most preferred candidate is the one against whose name the voter has written '1' on the ballot paper. This candidate represents the voter's first preference vote. This definition also applies to voting under systems of proportional representation. Where a first past the post (plurality) electoral system is used, the first preference vote refers to the number of ticks or crosses gained by each candidate. Hare-Clark system - The Hare-Clark system is a form of proportional representation by the single transferable vote method (STV) used to elect members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly since 1909. For a brief summary of the Hare-Clark system and its context, see David M Farrell and Ian McAllister, The Australian Electoral System: Origins, Variations and Consequences, pp 26-27 (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2006, ISBN 0868408581). proportional representation - Proportional representation refers to any electoral system which aims to create a representative parliamentary chamber in which the proportion of seats in the assembly matches the pattern of votes cast at an election. Proportional representation can be based on the proportional representation of parties or on the representation of candidates according to their support in terms of preferences expressed by the voters. All systems of proportional representation require elections to be held in multimember districts and the larger the number of members in each electoral district (district magnitude), the more proportional the result. This means that the higher the district magnitude, the easier it is for small parties to be represented in a parliamentary chamber. In this respect, proportional representation is an electoral system which is likely to encourage diversity of representation. change from previous election (Swing) The change in first preference vote won by a party at a given election when compared with the previous election, expressed as the difference between the percentage first preference vote shares. Note that the party must be listed in the database for both elections (see listed party) for a figure to appear in the column. If the party was a listed party in the previous election but ran candidates under a difference name, no figure for changed vote share will appear (see party name). turnout - The turnout at at election is the proportion of voters on the electoral roll (registered voters) who cast a vote. In this database, turnout is measured as the rate of voting in contested seats, shown as a percentage of registered voters. Registration of voters - Registration (enrolment) as a voter is now compulsory for all Australian parliamentary elections (note the partial exception of South Australia, below). With minor qualifications for length of residence and variations for some state and territory elections, all eligible Australian citizens are required to be registered as voters. Comprehensive voter registration can be achieved by surveying households, and by requiring state agencies which compile lists of names and addresses to provided these lists to electoral authorities. For commentary on the context of compulsory registration, see David M Farrell and Ian McAllister, The Australian Electoral System: Origins, Variations and Consequences, pp 121-124 (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2006, ISBN 0868408581). Election dates are: 19 October 1974, 13 August 1977, 7 June 1980, 3 December 1983, 7 March 1987, 27 October 1990, 4 June 1994, 30 August 1997, 18 August 2001, 18 June 2005, 9 August 2008. |
